I Live With You

Carol Emshwiller

I Live With You is a sophisticated collection of fierce, compassionate fiction marked by an absurdist sense of humor. A contemporary of Borges, Calvino, and Weldon, Carol Emshwiller has been lauded for her originality and lyricism. These striking short stories skillfully explore themes of war, seduction, and censorship.

I Live With You

by Carol Emshwiller

ISBN: 1892391252

Published: 2005

Available Format(s): Trade Paperback and eBooks

I Live With You is a sophisticated collection of fierce, compassionate fiction marked by an absurdist sense of humor. A contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Fay Weldon, Carol Emshwiller has been lauded for her originality and lyricism. These striking short stories skillfully explore themes of war, seduction, and censorship: An Eden emerges from the wreckage of burning books in “The Library,” “Boys” sets a weary general and his sons against a village of determined mothers, and “I Live With You (and You Don’t Know It)” brings a necessary chaos from an uninvited guest.

“…Carol’s stories turn the corner into another dimension.”
—Harlan Ellison, author of Shatterday

“The woman is a genius, period…. You must, must, must not miss this collection.”
—Gwenda Bond

“Emshwiller consistently pokes holes through the fabrications of our lives and reminds me of the power literature has to change the way we think.”
—Books to Watch Out For

“A collection that manages to remind us of great writers like George Saunders, Grace Paley, and Harlan Ellison all at once, although Emshwiller is a unique and wonderful writer in her own right.”
—Time Out Chicago

“Compassion and a sly sense of humor shape the insight-filled fiction…. Lyrical and resonant….”
—Publishers Weekly

“Her eye for detail and ear for poetry allow her to create compact fables that resonate beyond their immediate settings.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

Carol Emshwiller is a key figure in science fiction’s new-wave movement and the author of Carmen Dog, The Mount, Mr. Boots, and The Secret City. She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Pushcart Prize as well as the Philip K. Dick and Gallun awards. In 2005, she received the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement and the Nebula Award for “I Live With You,” the title story of her short-story collection.

Praise for Carol Emshwiller

“…the most inventive mind in science fiction.”
—Karen Joy Fowler

Praise for The Secret City

“The Secret City is yet another strong late work from one of our treasures.”
—SF Site, featured review

“But all these past instances aside, no one has yet approached the trope with the finesse and grace of Emshwiller. She’s a writer of such slantwise sensibilities and such deep perceptions that she conveys the exotic weirdness of such a setup—and the almost unfathomable otherness of the Betashan mentality—with uncommon vividness and startling jolts of creepiness.”
–Sci Fi Weekly (Grade: A)

“During an award-filled, 30-year career, Emshwiller has delighted readers and fellow writers with her unique brand of exquisitely rendered magic realism. The city of the title of her latest haunting book is a mountainous retreat, concealed by vines and tree roots, where alien tourists now stranded on Earth may assuage nostalgia for their home world, Betasha. It is to this now largely abandoned hideout that one particular alien, Lorpas, goes to seek fellowship after being arrested for vagrancy and escaping to the hills. There he meets and falls for Allush, a female Betashan who, like Lorpas, was born on Earth and has blended in so well that rescue is no longer appealing. Emshwiller alternates between Lorpas’s account of his growing friendship with a bumbling rescuer whom he overpowers and Allush’s tale of return to Betasha as the two meet, separate, and finally reunite to establish Earth as their new home world. A simple yet vivid parable on the value of cherishing the home one knows best.”
—Booklist

Bountiful City
Boys
Cool People
Gliders Though They Be
I Live With You (and You Don’t Know It)
Josephine
My General
See No Evil, Feel No Joy
The Assassin or Being the Loved One
The Doctor
The Library
The Prince of Mules